Mr Cook and Mr Trump had dinner on Friday night, while the president was at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Mr Trump described the conversation to reporters as he prepared to travel back to Washington.

The majority of Apple's products are due to be hit with 10 per cent tariffs in the next weeks or months. Levies on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple laptops have been pushed back to Dec 15, but the tariff hit on the Apple Watch, AirPods, and many accessories is still planned for Sept 1.

Mr Trump said Mr Cook made a "good case" about the difficulty in competing with Samsung if Apple products are subject to import tariffs. "I thought he made a very compelling argument."

Samsung, however, builds its products across several countries, including Vietnam and South Korea in addition to China. That means their tariff impact will be far less than the impact to Cupertino, California-based Apple.

"It's tough for Apple to pay tariffs if it's competing with a very good company that's not," Mr Trump said.

Apple needs to incorporate the cost of tariffs into the cost of goods, while Samsung currently won't, putting Apple at a competitive disadvantage. Samsung is launching its latest device, the Note 10, later this month, while Apple is planning upgrades to the Apple Watch, iPhone, and its computers for later this year.